What if Starbucks (or Borders or anyplace that sold fancy-pants coffees) offered a way to provide free lattes to their fans who may no longer be able to afford their daily fix?
Imagine a corner of the coffee lounge converted (as needed) to a "Give us 5 minutes, get a free latte" space. One at a time, marketers could set up a simple trade-show booth display and conduct sample testing/focus groups/surveys with willing volunteers that fit their demographic. Five minutes in exchange for a $5 coffee. Hey, if you're in there anyway, and you've got 5 minutes to spare, why not?
LOGISTICS
Sure, the store could use a simple drink ticket system: the marketer hands the consumer a ticket after they've participated, which the consumer then exchanges for a coffee, and the barista later tallies for a bill that the marketer pays at the end of their session. This would keep it simple and flexible (time-wise). But better yet, a sticker like the kind used for admission at museums, marked on the back with the date and marketer's signature, that says something like "I scored a free latte at ______(insert name of store)" would further promote the store, while also advertising the wearer's resourcefulness to friends and colleagues. The store's website could offer an instant alert via RSS feature for volunteers depending on what demographics they register under ("Free latte alert: Rosie's Cookies and Cakes is holding a taste-testing and survey at our Main Street store from noon to 1pm.")
COST
Assuming each volunteer cost the marketer the most expensive drink in the house, it's still a lot cheaper than the $20 - $50 an hour that they pay individuals to attend focus groups, not to mention a lot easier to organize and manage.
WIN-WIN-WIN
It's a win-win-win: free lattes during hard times; increased foot traffic to the stores, not to mention free press and lots of word-of-mouth; and an easy way for entrepreneurs and small businesses to test their products and services on remarkably willing test-subjects.
JUST SAY NO
How do you say No to willing participants that don't fit the demographic? Easy: a pre-registration form (online, which can be accessed at any in-store terminal) where they declare their various consumer preferences and categories. This is automatically matched to whatever the marketer has checked off and the result is either "Yes, come on down!" Or "Sorry, we have no matches for you today. Please try again soon."
Somebody please take this idea and use it. I want a free latte, dammit.
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
iPhone G3 and Canadian phone service plans
I've been reading comments on an article at the Globe and Mail site speculating about the price of phone plans for the new iPhone G3 due out in July. Lots of moaning about how high the service charges will be, with no thought to the root of the problem. To clarify:
1) phone service providers are not subsidizing the iPhone. They are no longer required to share revenue with Apple. Apple has gone back to just selling the hardware/software, in the hopes of accelerating global sales and thus becoming the world's most popular mobile gadget.
2) Apple has no control over what phone service providers will charge. They will leave that up to the market to decide. Only time will tell what people are willing to pay.
3) Canada's protectionist laws will ensure that Canadians will always pay a higher price via domestic monopolies, than other countries with active international free-trade agreements. Fear of being swallowed/pummelled by foreign competition keeps Canada from participating fully in its free trade agreements. ("Yes, please buy our Canadian exports, but no, no, you can't compete with us at the same price on our home turf. We must insist on slapping high import tariffs on your goods so that the playing field is tilted in favor of our own goods here at home, because we're just not sure we'd survive otherwise.") So Rogers, Bell, etc enjoy a sweet monopoly on domestic markets, with no real fear of international competition.
Until Canada realizes and believes that their products and services are capable of being world-class, they will continue to cling to protectionism. Unfortunately, globalization is unstoppable. It's only a matter of time before the tsunami of competition hits. There are already signs of leaks in the dam: Skype has found a way to circumvent the tariffs. It's called VoIP. And they now offer mobile phones with roaming capabilities (i.e. buy a phone and plan in London, use it in Canada for potentially less than a Rogers/Bell deal). You can tweet and text using Skype. Other technologies will soon follow.
The law cannot keep up with tech innovation, so the only way to survive is to jump into the fray and compete, head to head, with other countries. What are we afraid of? If we can live through harsh winters, surely we can kick some British butt.
1) phone service providers are not subsidizing the iPhone. They are no longer required to share revenue with Apple. Apple has gone back to just selling the hardware/software, in the hopes of accelerating global sales and thus becoming the world's most popular mobile gadget.
2) Apple has no control over what phone service providers will charge. They will leave that up to the market to decide. Only time will tell what people are willing to pay.
3) Canada's protectionist laws will ensure that Canadians will always pay a higher price via domestic monopolies, than other countries with active international free-trade agreements. Fear of being swallowed/pummelled by foreign competition keeps Canada from participating fully in its free trade agreements. ("Yes, please buy our Canadian exports, but no, no, you can't compete with us at the same price on our home turf. We must insist on slapping high import tariffs on your goods so that the playing field is tilted in favor of our own goods here at home, because we're just not sure we'd survive otherwise.") So Rogers, Bell, etc enjoy a sweet monopoly on domestic markets, with no real fear of international competition.
Until Canada realizes and believes that their products and services are capable of being world-class, they will continue to cling to protectionism. Unfortunately, globalization is unstoppable. It's only a matter of time before the tsunami of competition hits. There are already signs of leaks in the dam: Skype has found a way to circumvent the tariffs. It's called VoIP. And they now offer mobile phones with roaming capabilities (i.e. buy a phone and plan in London, use it in Canada for potentially less than a Rogers/Bell deal). You can tweet and text using Skype. Other technologies will soon follow.
The law cannot keep up with tech innovation, so the only way to survive is to jump into the fray and compete, head to head, with other countries. What are we afraid of? If we can live through harsh winters, surely we can kick some British butt.
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
loopt.com, the new i-phone and social networking
If you're a social bunny, you'll love loopt.com. Way more powerful than just being able to call friends for a spontaneous dinner, because it lets you see immediately where your friends are both on a GPS map, and via photo/video that they've taken (if they're in a giving mood). It also lets you instantly call or text them to get together. Yes, you can stay in touch with friends via twitter.com, but it relies heavily on text, whereas loopt lets you see where they are, and visuals are just much faster and more efficient than texting.
We all complain about not having time to see our friends, and the hassle of coordinating plans, especially in a big city. loopt.com puts the spontaneity back into relationships. If I see a friend is nearby, I can suggest lunch or a coffee, and the logistics are a snap. Of course, if I don't want to be found, I can simply turn off my sharing, or filter out all but a list of friends. How cool is that??
While it works with just about every mobile device out there, it's especially easy and fun on an iPhone. But then, what isn't? Speaking of which, I can't wait for the new iPhone (due out July 11), as it's hooked to multiple global phone networks and will take a SIM card. Hallelujah.
We all complain about not having time to see our friends, and the hassle of coordinating plans, especially in a big city. loopt.com puts the spontaneity back into relationships. If I see a friend is nearby, I can suggest lunch or a coffee, and the logistics are a snap. Of course, if I don't want to be found, I can simply turn off my sharing, or filter out all but a list of friends. How cool is that??
While it works with just about every mobile device out there, it's especially easy and fun on an iPhone. But then, what isn't? Speaking of which, I can't wait for the new iPhone (due out July 11), as it's hooked to multiple global phone networks and will take a SIM card. Hallelujah.
Tuesday, June 3, 2008
What makes a great designer?
Design is not a mysterious talent that one is born with. It takes skill (born of hundreds of hours of practice), experience (add several years of underpaid toil) and exposure to art of all forms, to develop "an eye."
To be a great designer requires imagination (born of daydreaming) and relentless curiosity. These combine to develop a capacity to generate fresh ideas on a regular basis.
You may be surprised to learn that many famous designers can't draw. Most cannot spell to save themselves. (You're feeling better already, aren't you?)
What they can do is make your stuff look irresistible to even the most rational of consumers. How many times have you bought something that you know is overpriced simply because you preferred its packaging?
According to a 2007 national survey by Procter & Gamble, professional design pays for itself 20 times over.
Wanna get rich? Hire a designer.
To be a great designer requires imagination (born of daydreaming) and relentless curiosity. These combine to develop a capacity to generate fresh ideas on a regular basis.
You may be surprised to learn that many famous designers can't draw. Most cannot spell to save themselves. (You're feeling better already, aren't you?)
What they can do is make your stuff look irresistible to even the most rational of consumers. How many times have you bought something that you know is overpriced simply because you preferred its packaging?
According to a 2007 national survey by Procter & Gamble, professional design pays for itself 20 times over.
Wanna get rich? Hire a designer.
Sunday, May 18, 2008
Why pay a designer when I can do it myself?
It looks easy enough. A brochure or flyer can be whipped up in 5 minutes (okay, 30 minutes) in Word or Photoshop, right? Your niece/neighbor/brother-in-law is a whiz on a computer. Between the two of you, you can whip something up, right? Besides, it looks like fun.
Let's assume you're capable of selecting a couple of colors, fonts and you've found some appropriate photos/art. Great. Now try putting them together.
Not quite what you were after? Try using a wizard or template.
Still have a nagging suspicion that it's, well... a bit ordinary? Something's missing, but you can't put your finger on what it is. The photos are great, the font is cool, the color is your favorite... Why is this so damn hard? In a word: composition.
Composition is the secret ingredient that separates professional design from home-made efforts.
Design is just a fancy word for composition. Designers are simply composers of visual elements. Whether they are fashion designers, interior designers or graphic designers, they are trained to select scale, color, shape, line, texture, materials and a myriad of other choices to create arrangements that look coherent and have that wow factor.
Composition is the art of taking raw ingredients (text, photos, a logo) and organizing them into an interesting, pleasing, coherent arrangement. This involves decisions such as how large each element should be, what colors to use where, what shapes to introduce. It involves creating a sense of hierarchy on the page so that the viewer is not paralyzed by too many choices. Most of all, it requires editing the thousands of possibilities, and then modifying them as needed to produce an original appealing look. The result is that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.
To the untrained eye, it's often easier to spot a design that lacks composition than one that has it. Just open the Yellow Pages and scan the ads. Ever noticed how easily you're seduced by ads that look simple, elegant and organized, versus ones that just scream 20 messages at you? A presentation without composition is like an orchestra with no conductor.
What else can a designer offer that I can't do myself?
Skill and speed. As with any endeavor, the longer you do it, the faster and better you get at it. Someone who works with visual software every day is going to be faster and more skilled than someone who dabbles or is still mastering it.
Longevity: Being immersed in the design world, they are more likely to know when a trend has reached saturation point, and steer you in the direction of emerging trends for a look that is current and that will last longer.
Raw materials: Designers have access to hundreds of fonts. They also know how to tweak them to give your logo/piece a custom look. (When you use a font that's available with standard software like Word, the results look ordinary. Why? Because your eyes, and everyone else's, are conditioned to recognize them.) They know where and how to acquire original professional photography or illustration that fits your budget so that you don't end up using mediocre clip art or stock that looks –surprise!– bland and ordinary and, well, home-made.
You already know, from your own experience as a client and a consumer, that a first impression can be the last. Why cripple your efforts with anything less than a fabulous presentation?
Let's assume you're capable of selecting a couple of colors, fonts and you've found some appropriate photos/art. Great. Now try putting them together.
Not quite what you were after? Try using a wizard or template.
Still have a nagging suspicion that it's, well... a bit ordinary? Something's missing, but you can't put your finger on what it is. The photos are great, the font is cool, the color is your favorite... Why is this so damn hard? In a word: composition.
Composition is the secret ingredient that separates professional design from home-made efforts.
Design is just a fancy word for composition. Designers are simply composers of visual elements. Whether they are fashion designers, interior designers or graphic designers, they are trained to select scale, color, shape, line, texture, materials and a myriad of other choices to create arrangements that look coherent and have that wow factor.
Composition is the art of taking raw ingredients (text, photos, a logo) and organizing them into an interesting, pleasing, coherent arrangement. This involves decisions such as how large each element should be, what colors to use where, what shapes to introduce. It involves creating a sense of hierarchy on the page so that the viewer is not paralyzed by too many choices. Most of all, it requires editing the thousands of possibilities, and then modifying them as needed to produce an original appealing look. The result is that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.
To the untrained eye, it's often easier to spot a design that lacks composition than one that has it. Just open the Yellow Pages and scan the ads. Ever noticed how easily you're seduced by ads that look simple, elegant and organized, versus ones that just scream 20 messages at you? A presentation without composition is like an orchestra with no conductor.
What else can a designer offer that I can't do myself?
Skill and speed. As with any endeavor, the longer you do it, the faster and better you get at it. Someone who works with visual software every day is going to be faster and more skilled than someone who dabbles or is still mastering it.
Longevity: Being immersed in the design world, they are more likely to know when a trend has reached saturation point, and steer you in the direction of emerging trends for a look that is current and that will last longer.
Raw materials: Designers have access to hundreds of fonts. They also know how to tweak them to give your logo/piece a custom look. (When you use a font that's available with standard software like Word, the results look ordinary. Why? Because your eyes, and everyone else's, are conditioned to recognize them.) They know where and how to acquire original professional photography or illustration that fits your budget so that you don't end up using mediocre clip art or stock that looks –surprise!– bland and ordinary and, well, home-made.
You already know, from your own experience as a client and a consumer, that a first impression can be the last. Why cripple your efforts with anything less than a fabulous presentation?
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